A TIRED TRAVELLER 99 



" What has come to me — what ails me that I cannot 

 continue my journey ? The sun is now as high as it 

 will be : the green country is so near — a few minutes' 

 flight would carry me across this flat sea-marsh to the 

 woods and thickets where there are safety and the 

 moist green fields to feed in. Yet I dare not venture. 

 Hark ! that is the hooded crow ; he is everywhere roam- 

 ing about over the marshland in quest of small crabs 

 and carrion left by the tide in the creeks. He would 

 detect this weakness I find in me which would cause 

 me to travel near the surface with a languid flight ; 

 and if he saw and gave chase, knowing me to be a sick 

 straggler, my heart would fail and there would be 

 no escape. Day and night I have flown southwards 

 from that distant place where my home and nest was in 

 the birches, where with my mate and young and all 

 my neighbours we lived happily together, and finally 

 set out together on this journey. Yesterday when it 

 grew dark we were over the sea, flying very high ; there 

 was little wind, and it was against us, and even at a 

 great height the air seemed heavy. And it grew black 

 with clouds that were above us, and we were wetted 

 with heavy rain ; it ceased and the blackness went 

 by, and we found that we had dropped far, far down 

 and were near the sea. It was a quiet sea, and the sky 

 had grown very clear, sprinkled with brilliant stars as 

 on a night of frost, and the stars were reflected below 

 us so that we seemed to be flying between two starry 

 skies, one above and one beneath. I was frightened 

 at that moving, black, gleaming sky beneath me, and 



